CHALKBOARD MANDALA FEE NEE

Chalkboard Mandala

Ink Circles

28ct. Valor by Picture This Plus

GA Lagoon two over two (5+ skeins)

This was an absolute joy from start to finish.  I really wish you could see the varieagation of the thread better...it is a delicious range of deep blues and greens.  

Next up?  I'm toying with the Shepherd's Bush Heart of my Heart piece.  I also have a few other Ink Circles charts that might make an appearance, or a Rosewood Manor, or maybe I'll go back to Patricia Printemps.

In between all of this cross stitching will be a two day class with Miss Kurdy Biggs of Threedles fame.  Kurdy is coming to teach two pieces to my Library Guild, and I am so prancypants excited about it I almost can't stand it!

Such a lovely dilemma to have on a gorgeous Friday, no?

Whirlwind appointment with my kidney doc this morning...looks like I am holding my own and can keep limping along without dialysis a bit longer.  I'm now officially Stage Five, which is End Stage Renal Failure, but until I just can't take it anymore we're going to stay status quo.  Buzzy is doing his thing and will get checkups next week and the week after, and seems to be ready to answer the call when needed, bless his little self.  Finally...will meet the transplant surgeon on Thursday to start the journey toward a new kidney.

Many of you have asked how/why I got kidney disease.  The truth of the matter is that we have no idea where it came from, but I have a theory.  I was born and raised in Lima, Ohio and lived within a few miles of one of the largest petrochemical refineries in the country.  (You can do the math on that one).  

But I am absolutely sure that 94% of my problem is that I never learned how to manage STRESS, and took worrying, fretting, and mulling to a whole new level.  The first thing to burn out was my thyroid (cancer in 1991), then my gut (Crohn's in 1995), and then finally the kidneys in 2002.  

Serious, relentless, mind-numbing, bone-crushing, soul-killing stress.

And there I was in the middle of all of it with my perky little smile, a thousand "I'm fine, thank you, how are yous?" and nothing but my wits to see me through.

Epic. 

Fail.

But!  All of this has given me a purpose in life...which I will fulfill as soon as I can stand up and wear pants and lipstick without needing a seven hour nap.

I am going to make it my life's mission to save people from themselves, vis a vis stress.  I'm hoing to write a book or go on a lecture circuit that will show people what stress can do to a body (and mind) when it's aloud to run amok.

My Dad tried to tell me..."CJ", he said on more than one occasion. "You have GOT to learn how to only worry about the stuff you can control and let the other stuff go.  If you don't, it's going to drive you nuts or kill you."

Yup.

So...with needle and thread in hand, an army of well-trained professionals at the ready, and you, my very dear and faithful friends...I march onward into happy, healthy, stress free oblivion!  

Can somebody pick up a couple of cheeseburgers for the trip?